1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a breast pump for human, and more particularly to a piston-type breast pump for human.
2. Description of Related Arts
Conventional breast pumps are divided into two types, the membrane type or the piston type. The membrane type has a simple structural construction and is easy to use. However, the drawbacks are low flow volume and low efficiency, low pressure level, and requirement of fast pressing in order to generate intermittent vacuum condition. Manual operation will lead to tiredness of user, especially the hands. Electric operation fails to provide a rhythmic and sufficient sectional force for producing a suction effect, and the effect as produced is greatly different from a frequency of a suction effect of a baby.
Piston-type breast pump has a greater stroke for the process and produce an effect which is more similar to a suction frequency of a baby. In view of suction force and efficiency, user complains about insufficient suction force and low efficiency for those marketed products. For some products, the suction force is large when tested without milking bottle kits but insufficient in actual use.
On the other hand, piston-typed breast pump with high suction power is usually bulky and large in size which is not suitable for carriage, while those with compact size are of low suction power. In addition, the piston-type breast pump usually comes with problems of noise and vibration. In view of function, there is no such multi-functional breast pump which is adjustable for controlling speed, stroke of the process, or is capable of simulating a lactation promotion process, and provides overall suction power adjustment. In short, a breast pump which is high efficiency, high power, small size, silent, and controllable for multi-function still does not exist. . SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT INVENTION
The invention is advantageous in that it provides a piston-type breast pump which has improved functions of which the breast pump has a small size, high efficiency, high suction force, low noise level and low vibration level while providing multi-functional modes.
Additional advantages and features of the invention will become apparent from the description which follows, and may be realized by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particular point out in the appended claims.
According to the present invention, the foregoing and other objects and advantages are attained by a piston-type breast pump which includes a housing and a piston-type pumping arrangement received in the housing, comprising a DC motor, a gear reducer and a control circuit which are received in the housing; a gear swing unit operatively communicated with the gear reducer and connected to the pumping arrangement; first and second position sensor plates for detecting a far point position and a near point position respectively provided between the gear swing unit and the gear reducer; a buffer spring connected to the gear swing unit; a stroke sensor wheel positioned on an axis member of the DC motor; a speed control button, process control button, a promoting lactation button and a suction adjustment screw positioned on an outer side of the housing; wherein the housing has a vertical design having an indented portion defining a bottle side support on the housing and comprising a bottle bottom support provided thereon in a detachable manner.
The housing comprises a front housing member, a rear housing member and a bottom housing member for forming the housing, wherein the speed control button, the process control button and the promoting lactation button are provided on the front housing member and communicatively connected to the control circuit, wherein the bottle side support is constructed into a semicircle structure having a bottom end operatively connected with the bottle bottom support for retaining a milk bottle into position, wherein the front housing member further provides an output head arranged for connecting to the milk bottle through a bottle connecting tube, wherein the suction adjustment screw is positioned on the rear housing member.
The gear reducer comprises an axis support connected to the bottom housing member; a first axis, a second axis, a gear swing core axis positioned and supported in sequence through an inclined surface defined through a supporting side of the axis support; a gear connected to a middle portion of the first axis; a gear pulley connected to an end portion of the first axis; a second gear provided to a middle portion of the second axis operatively connected to the gear of the first axis, a third gear provided at one end portion of the second gear complementary to a teeth surface of the gear swing unit; a gear swing axis provided at one end of the gear swing unit through which the piston-typed pumping arrangement is connected; a motor pulley connected to the gear pulley through a belt arranged for connecting the gear pulley to the DC motor, wherein the gear has a size smaller than the second gear, and the second gear has a size larger than the third gear.
The piston-typed pumping arrangement comprises a cylinder defining a cylinder cavity, a piston unit operatively provided in the cylinder cavity; and an output tube and a connecting output provided at one end portion of the cylinder, wherein the output tube is connected to an output head of the front housing member, wherein a frame unit is connected to the bottom housing member while a control valve such as a throttle valve is supported through and provided on the frame unit, wherein the end portion of the cylinder is connected to the frame unit in a hinged manner, wherein the control valve is connected to the connecting output through the output tube.
The bottle bottom support comprises a connecting leg and a position member, wherein the housing has a position groove and a connecting hole corresponding to a position of the connecting leg and the position member respectively, wherein the connecting leg has a position hole and an inclined surface provided thereon.
The buffer spring is inserted to connecting to the gear swing core axis in an enclosed manner, wherein the buffer spring has two ends defining to force receiving portions which are provided to the gear swing unit and to the axis support respectively.
Two photoelectric sensors are positioned corresponding to the first and second position sensor plates respectively in which the first and second position sensor plates have a protruded structural construction. One of the first and second position sensor plates is inserted into one of the grooves of the photoelectric sensor corresponding to the position sensor plates when the gear swing unit swings to a position corresponding to the particular position sensor plate for detecting a position of the gear swing unit.
The stroke sensor wheel and the motor pulley are connected, wherein the stroke sensor wheel has two indented portions, wherein the stroke sensor wheel comprises photoelectric sensor corresponding to the stroke sensor wheel.
The throttle valve has a valve body, a valve core and a suction adjustment screw for forming the throttle valve, wherein the valve core has a cone structure at a first end and a plurality of thread construction at second end opposite to the first end, wherein the valve body has a core receiving cavity arranged for receiving and connecting the valve core, wherein the valve body has an input opening and an output opening which are channeled through the core receiving cavity respectively, wherein the valve body is supported by the frame unit, wherein the suction adjustment screw is connected with the valve core and extended to penetrate to an outer side of the rear housing member, wherein the input opening is connected to the connecting output through a tube.
The housing has a vertical design, which is, the piston suction arrangement, the gear reducer and the DC motor are orderly arranged in a vertical manner.
The preferred embodiment of the present invention employs a low speed high power DC motor for providing driving force, a gear swing unit driving the forward and backward motion of the piston through a two-stage gear reducer, a buffer spring between the gear swing unit and the reducer arrangement, thereby the overall size is compact, while the suction force is large and the vibration and noise level are reduced.
Still further objects and advantages will become apparent from a consideration of the ensuing description and drawings.
These and other objectives, features, and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description, the accompanying drawings, and the appended claims.